The Film Junkie

This story of a gambler who tries to pull one over on a charity group but ends up falling for one of the charity gals is one of the weakest Cary Grant movies I have seen in years.

The plot is thin, Laraine Day is overly happy for almost the entire film and thus grates on the nerves, and Grant is given a role without definition.  Is he a gambling jerk?  Does he really change?  Can he knit?

The film tries to be a drama, romantic comedy, story of redemption and a twisted caper flick and thus falls short of all categories to be, instead, a lame duck.

Grade: C

This somewhat forced love story has its good elements, but overall it seems strange and nothing seems to fit together. 

Cary Grant stars as a father of three who has been separated from his wife for several years when she passes away leaving him alone with the children he barely knows.  The child actors are delightful, intelligent and full of life.  Grant is great as a distant father used to being alone who is unprepared for the strange curiousity of youth as well as children who are trying to cope with mortality.

The movie takes a turn for the weird when Grant’s son encounters the runaway daughter of a famous Italian conductor (Sophia Loren) and begs his father to make her their maid.  Loren looks over-tanned and sort of dirty throughout the film.  Her golden dress is a sight to behold, but before that she looks over-corseted and odd.  As far as her acting, Loren is charming, but her accent can be slightly frustrating. 

Thus the film goes from being about fatherhood to being about surrogate motherhood to being a romantic comedy to being about modern marriage.  By the end of the film, the children are aggravating and Loren is tiresome, Grant is the only constantly good element in the film.

Grade: B-

The chemistry between Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn is a treat to behold.  Few people have the timing, wit and physical abilities of these two and when they are in a scene together you can’t take your eyes off of them.  The only other male-female team I can think of that work this well together are Woody Allen and Diane Keaton (and if you don’t believe me see ‘Love and Death’ and ‘Annie Hall’).

Wealthy upper crust Julia Seton (Doris Nolan) falls in love with Johnny (Grant) a middle class man she met on holiday and returns with him to New York to introduce him to her family, including her free spirited sister, Linda (Hepburn).  Johnny and Julia soon discover that they are very different sorts of people and Johnny takes comfort in the fun-loving activities of Linda.

One of the first scenes between Grant and Hepburn has her greeting him while snacking on an apple then reaching out and offering him a bite of the same apple with a comfortable ease that goes far beyond the single day their characters have known one another.

Though she might be better known for teaming with Spencer Tracy and he might be famous as the dashing leading man, in the few films they did together there is simply nothing that compares with the magnetism of Grant and Hepburn.

Grade: A

This film was leaps and bounds ahead of its time.

Katharine Hepburn stars as Sylvia who is forced to drag herself as Sylvester so her father won’t be arrested.  Through various plot contrivances, Sylvester remains fooling everyone into thinking she is a he.

Hepburn has a tremendous amount of fun playing a boy.  Her physicality is amazing and she displaying her dextarity by jumping through windows and climbing rocks.  This might be the most athletic female character in film history up to that time.  Her portrayal of Sylvia, the meek and sweet daughter, is grating and annoying, but for the bulk of the film she is Sylvester and it is a liberating experience as a woman watching her thrive.

Cary Grant plays her father’s sidekick Jimmy who gives Sylvester a hard time, but is there to help out when needed.  He gives the role all the smarm and delicious deviousness it requires and then some.  He is an odd duck of a character, but in a film without a real leading man, he is a glorious bastard of a man.

This film is famous for having probably the first big screen lesbian kiss, Sylvester is kissed by her father’s new girlfriend.  There is some strange editing during the scene, which makes one wonder just what they left out.

The homosexual undertones flow throughout the film.  Sylvia is attracted to Michael and there is serious heat between them, but only when she is dressed as a man.  Sylvia is found attractive by two different women in the film, one of whom finds her just as attractive when she is dressed as a woman.  This is dangerous ground they are treading for the era, and it is remarkable to watch.

This is certainly not a masterpiece when it comes to construction, some of the editing is sloppy and Hepburn’s acting is garish in parts, but it is a revolutionary work that led the way for a new kind of woman on screen and was an inspiration for the lesbian and feminist filmmakers of the second wave feminist movement.

Grade: A-

The beginning of this film gives one a very different impression of what it will become than what actually happens.  It starts off with Cary Grant as a curmudgeonly drunk beachcomber who gets suckered into helping spot Japanese planes for the Austalian army during WWII.

However as the film progresses, he saves a group of daughters of consulate officials and their mistress (Leslie Caron) and becomes entangled in their lives and vice versa.  Yet this is not a typical man alone with crazy females film, instead each learns a little from one another and they are able to survive the Japanese because of the bond they have formed with one another.

This film shows the essential need for a male presence in the raising of a girl, whether he be the ‘acceptable’ father figure, or just a good influence.  It also shows that people are much more conplex than what they might initally seem to be, even in Hollywood movies.  Grant and Caron have a great chemistry and it is a joy to see both of them out of their comfort zone.

This was Grant’s second to last screen role and it is nice to see him break tradition and play an entirely new kind of man.  Instead of the smartass quick wit, or the dashing hero, here he is the reluctant antihero who really doesn’t change all that much in the end.  It really proves his range once and for all and his standing as one of the best of all time.

I expected to hate this film, but by the end I was invested and interested.  It may be improbable and imperfect, but it is a charmer.

Grade: B

There is something delicious about this comedic thriller co-starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, but there is also something a little bit to sugary sweet for my tastes.

It is the story of Reggie (Hepburn) who discovers that her late husband was not the man she thought he was and takes comfort in the arms of a mysterious stranger (Grant).  As she becomes more and more entangled and confused by the situation she finds that nothing is what it seems and doubts her own instincts.

Grant is great, sexy and charming as ever even though he is almost 60 years young here.  He brings danger and reveals once again that there were few other actors able to juggled comedy and drama as well as he.

Hepburn’s character, on the other hand, is a little too weak-willed for my tastes.  I wish she would figure things out a little bit faster, I am usually ten steps ahead of her when I want to be discovering the truth alongside her.

This is a good, if not great, mystery that had a few twists I did not see coming.  Grant and Hepburn make a great team, despite the 25 year age difference, the sexual tension is palpable and engaging.

Grade: B+

For years my grandfather has been telling me to see this movie.  It is his favorite and he promised that I would love it as well…unfortunately this was not the case.

It is the story of British officers in India who are taken captive by an evil Indian dictator, who looks an awful lot like Gandhi, and the pet-like Indian man who follows them around and ultimately saves them.  The puppy-like man is Gunga Din (Sam Jaffe in really really bad make-up), a wide-eyed worshipper of everything British who befriends Cary Grant’s officer and learns how to be a soldier.

This film is racist on an epic scale.  Indian people are seen as savage and brutal, while the British colonizers are proper and righteous.  It is sexist in that there is one woman in the entire film and she is holding back one of the officers from reaching his true potential. 

Not only that but it has a nonsensical plot that meanders and bores, the effects are bad even for 1939, and the editing is terrible.  Action scenes are sped up on film to make them seem more violent and real, but it only works to make it seem like a weird mime show. 

The pacing is slow and the acting is terrible.  Grant skates in and out of a cocknie accent for the entire film making you want to tear your own ears off.  The make-up turning white men into Indian men is about as offensive as it comes, right up there with ‘Birth of a Nation’ (1915).

Oh and the score, one of the worst Hollywood scores I have ever heard.  The orchestrations make it seem like a sweet little Disney movie while the soldiers are bombing and killing the Indian people.  It is a really weird combination that makes me feel kind of queasy, like the life of an Indian man is equal to that of a cartoon duck.

Rudyard Kipling would, hopefully, be ashamed his poem was used for such a horrible and offensive flick.

A lot of really great films came out in 1939, ‘Gone With The Wind’, ‘Mr. Smith Goes To Washington’ and ‘The Wizard of Oz’ among them, this is most certainly not one of them.  Skip it.

Grade: D

I was really excited to see this movie, ‘The Awful Truth’ is one of my favorite movie and it also co-stars Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. However ‘Wife’ quickly falls apart under its own plot.

The film concerns a man who, after seven years, comes to terms with the fact that his wife died in a terrible shipwreck and decides to marry again. The very same day, his wife (Dunne) arrives back after being rescued from the island she was stranded on.

It relies very strongly on opposing forces to keep these two, obviously in love, people apart and these plot devices never really seem to work.

It is a delight seeing Dunne and Grant play off one another, but this is no ‘Truth’, it doesn’t come close.

Grade: B

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948):A Streetcar Names Desire (1951): Elia Kazan’s brilliant film version of the classic Tennessee Williams play about Blanche Dubois (Vivien Leigh in her best role since 1939’s ‘Gone With The Wind’), a woman on the run from her past but who cannot escape her inner demons.  She comes to New Orleans to stay with her younger sister Stella (Kim Hunter) and Stella’s husband, Stanley (Marlon Brando).  Brando is at his best in this raw, gritty role.  Kazan brings out the best in him, as he proved again in ‘On The Waterfront’ (1954).  This was Brando’s first big role and to see him chew the scenery with someone as equally talented as Leigh is a true delight.

Grade: A

The Awful Truth (1937): Probably the second best screwball comedy ever made (second that is to 1940’s ‘His Girl Friday’) this film follows Cary Grant and Irene Dunne as a married couple who fall apart because their marriage was built on a series of lies.  They go their separate ways but can’t seem to escape one another (much like the plot of ‘Friday’).  Dunne and Grant are a magic teaming, and the quips keep on coming.  It is like watch an Olympic ping-pong match listening to their words.  Brilliant.

Grade: A

Born Yesterday (1950): A great comedy about a woman who knows very little and thus her fiancee hires a man to educate her so that she will fit into the society he is trying to buy his way into.  What he soon discovers is that she is now too smart to be his patsy or his little woman.  A film about the strength of the educated woman that would make Mary Wollstonecraft very proud.  Judy Holliday won the Oscar for this and you can surely see why.

Grade: A-

Bus Stop (1956): A silly sweet movie about a cowboy who has never been off the farm setting out to find his “angel”.  He instead finds a stripper played by Marilyn Monroe.  The film has few redeeming qualities other than Monroe’s bizarre performance as a Southern less-than-classy dame.

Grade: C+

Clerks II (2006): I was very hesitant to watch this sequel to Kevin Smith’s indie comedy classic, as he has sworn to let the characters die with 2001’s ‘Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back’.  Yet here he is after his failed ‘Jersey Girl’ (2004), looking back to his roots.  I worried it would be a sell-out, but instead it is a fitting tribute to the film that re-defined how indies could be made.  The story is all about the Quick-Stop, Mooby’s and Dante’s strange sex appeal, just as it should be.  Luckily all the dude jokes and comparisons between the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings trilogies are tempered with a sweet performance by Rosario Dawson, who keeps you caring despite a dude and a donkey…gettin’ together (if you know what I mean).

Grade: B

The General (1927): A good, but not great Buster Keaton film about a train conductor during the Civil War who is trying to save the South.  The plot is thin, but watching Keaton run up and down and over and under the train is an amazing sight.  There was no one like him and I doubt there ever will be again.

Grade: B

How To Marry a Millionaire (1953): The story of three models (Laurent Bacall, Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable) who set out to find themselves a wealthy man.  The story is often silly, but Bacall is drag queen-tastic and Monroe steals the show with her sweet nerdy gal afraid to wear her glasses in public.  The ending is silly, but good for a giggle.

Grade: B-

In The Heat of the Night (1967): Classic Poitier.  Det. Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier at his best) finds himself in a small Southern town on the very night that a white man happens to be murdered.  At first the sheriff (Rod Steiger relishing a role he has been waiting for since 1954’s ‘On The Waterfront’) accuses Tibbs, but then learns that he is a homicide detective and thus reluctantly uses Tibbs to solve the murder.  The film is alive with prejudice and hate, exposing the true feelings of many who resented the changing world under the civil rights movement.  Steiger won the Best Actor Oscar and you can see why, but this film belongs to the young Poitier in a role that was so crucial to the times.  One of the best films of the 1960’s.

Grade: A

John Tucker Must Die (2006): A frothy useless film about teen revenge.  Sure it’s fun, but it really just makes me wish that there were more ‘Mean Girls’ (2004) out there and less of this drivel.

Grade: C-

King Kong (1933): Yes I loved the remake too, but when you look back at the original you truly understand what an ambitious idea it was to begin with.  Fay Wray screams and quivers, but she also gives a great performance as a woman with nothing left in her life to hope for until this opportunity comes to her.  The male actors are mainly typical to the age and none can go toe-to-toe with Wray.  Kong itself is a great visual achievement for any age.  A true classic.

Grade: A-

The Misfits (1961): The last film that Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable made before their deaths, this story about cowboys and mixed-up women is as raw as a good John Huston should be, while Marilyn absolutely shines in her last performance.  Montgomery Clift is also great as a younger cowboy to Gable’s weathered one.  Sometimes the story runs flat, but it is worth it to see these three work together.

Grade: B+/A-

Monkey Business (1952): A silly comedy about a scientist (Clark Gable) who thinks he has discovered a chemical fountain of youth which was actually mixed by a monkey.  His wife (Ginger Rogers) and he both accidentally take the formula and find themselves acting young all over again.  Marilyn Monroe plays a sexy young secretary, but her role is little more than a sex object.  The film shows that Gable and Rogers were still agile despite their years getting on, but the plot is thin and hard to watch.

Grade: C

Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (1936): A great Capra film about a man, Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper), who inherits millions of dollars and must deal with the big city sharks who want to take it away.  Eventually Deeds realizes that the world is a much more cruel place than he could have ever imagined.  Like all Capra dreamers, Deeds is reinvigorated in the end, but the journey is most certainly worth it.  Cooper’s eyes sparkle through the black and white frames, and you can’t help but falling in love with him.  Jean Arthur is a treat as the reporter who uses him and then regrets her actions.  You can feel the chemistry between them in the remarkable courtroom scene where our hero is finally redeemed.  Capra believed that eventually the system will help us, as he showed in ‘Mr. Smith Goes To Washington’ (1939), and we believe him too in this sweet and charming film. P.S. Forget the Adam Sandler version…PLEASE!

Grade: A-

Nashville (1975): A brilliant sweeping 70’s social epic about the title city amidst country music stars and political elections.  If you like music and great performances you should absolutely see this ambitious and beautiful film.  Robert Altman has left us quite a legacy.  Best scene: “I’m Easy”, trust me…Lily Tomlin will break your heart.

Grade: A

The Palm Beach Story (1942): Claudette Colbert is great as the wife of a financially struggling man.  She decides they must divorce because they cannot live on his paltry earnings anymore and her looks will still save her.  Much of the film rests in Colbert’s very capable hands (see ‘It Happened One Night’ (1934), it should be required for anyone who likes a good romantic comedy).  The plot is predictable, but she makes it worthwhile.

Grade: B/B+

Private Benjamin (1980): Goldie Hawn as a military officer?  Suspend your disbelief, because this film actually has some funny moments.  The early sex scene with Albert Brooks is great, but the film loses itself when Benjamin relocates to Belgium and falls in love.  The standout is Eileen Brennan (known to me always as Mrs. Peacock from ‘Clue’ (1985)) as the crazed and drunk captain who serves as Benjamin’s antagonist.  A silly fun film.

Grade: B-

Short Cuts (1993): The masterpiece of a masterful director, the story follows many Los Angeles residents as they deal with their lives during a disease outbreak and ends in an earthquake, but in between are tragic accidents, horrible decisions and remarkable performances from actors as diverse as Robert Downey Jr, Chris Penn, Lily Tomlin, Tom Waits, Lily Taylor, Madeline Stowe, Julianne Moore, Jack Lemmon, Andie MacDowell, Jennifer Jason Leigh and many many more.

Grade: A+

Steamboat Bill Jr (1928): A Buster Keaton masterpiece.  He challenges gravity and the confines of film in a mind-bending performance for the ages.  A classic that cannot be missed.

Grade: A

What’s Up, Doc? (1972): Peter Bogdanovich’s attempt at a screwball in the 70’s follows Barbra Streisand. Ryan O’Neal, Madeline Kahn and a bunch of plaid suitcases.  Streisand shines as a comedienne and the film is actually pretty fun, if the plot incoherent.  Plus there are some great shots of San Francisco.

Grade: B